April 14 (UPI) — President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, meeting in the White House on Monday, said the Maryland man wrongly deported to the Central American county won’t be returned to the United States despite a Supreme Court ruling.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to the supermax prison in El Salvador because he was an accused member of the MS-13 gang. The married father of three was in the United States legally with a green card, wasn’t charged with a crime and didn’t appear before a judge.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously said the U.S. government must “facilitate” his return and should have a hearing.

“I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” Bukele said in the Oval Office. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”

Trump refused to answer the question. Instead asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to respond.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,”Bondi said.

She said by wanting to “facilitate” his return, “meaning provide a plane,” if El Salvador decides to return him.

“This individual is a citizen of El Salvador,” Secretary of State Mark Rubio, who was in the Oval Office, said. “He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That’s where you deport people back to their country of origin.

“The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has a right to conduct a foreign policy in the United States, it’s that simple. End of story.”

When Trump was again asked about the return, he said: “Why don’t you just say, Isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country?”

On Sunday, Rubio said an additional 10 alleged “criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador,” and that Trump and Bukele’s alliance “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”

The White House on Monday listed a “tiny sample of the cold-blooded criminals deported to El Salvador”

In court documents, the government said he was being held in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.

“He is alive and secure in that facility,” District Court Judge Michael G. Kozak wrote in the filing to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. “He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.”

El Salvador received an updated Travel Advisory from the United States last week, that states visitors should “exercise normal precautions in El Salvador.”

“Gang activity has decreased over the last three years. This has caused a drop in violent crimes and murders,” it said.

Rubio announced with the updated advisory that Bukele’s “leadership has been crucial in improving the security of his country for foreign travelers, and that “gang activity, violent crime, and murders in El Salvador have significantly dropped.”

The Trump administration has formed a firm alliance with Bukele, who has warmly accepted hundreds of migrants deported from the United States, with many placed in the Salvadorian prison known as the Center for Economic Cooperation and Development, or CECOT.

“We look forward to seeing President Bukele, of El Salvador, tomorrow in the White House,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account Sunday, along with a video that shows deportees being led into CECOT while subdued by law enforcement agents.

The video originated from the social media account of El Salvador’s Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro, who posted the video to X on Sunday about five hours earlier, and said that Saturday “we received 10 MS-13 and Tren de Aragua criminals from [the Guantanamo Bay detention camp], who are now being held at the CECOT,” and added that “El Salvador continues to demonstrate its commitment to the fight against transnational terrorism.”

On April 4, U.S. District Judge Paula Xini in Maryland granted the motion from his attorneys to have him returned.